April 5, 2012 - Alternative payment models have gained momentum in the U.S. and abroad to align health care providers' incentives with value rather than volume.
International Innovation
April 5, 2012 - As the comparative effectiveness research (CER) becomes more widely available in the U.S., decision-makers can learn from international experiences using CER to drive health care toward improved quality and value.
International Innovation
April 4, 2012 - Bundled payments—also known as episode-based payment or case rates—have been proposed as a way to encourage coordination across providers and to promote more efficient care. Other countries have also experimented with bundled payments, most notably the Netherlands and Germany. Their experiences can inform U.S. efforts to reform health system payment and drive improvement.
International Innovation
April 2, 2012 - In recent years, several countries, including the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany, have sought to expand access to after-hours care—often by transitioning from the traditional approach, in which practices designate someone to be "on-call," to group-based or regional approaches. As the U.S. seeks to strengthen primary care, particularly through the development of patient-centered medical homes, it has a great deal to learn from these international models.
International Innovation
March 29, 2012 - An international survey of adults with complex health care needs found wide variations in the degree to which patients are engaged in their own care, from self-managing a health condition to actively participating in treatment decisions.
In the Literature
March 20, 2012 - Researchers compared the leadership and governance arrangements in seven nations with advanced health systems: Australia, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland.
In Brief
January 19, 2012 - This brief analyzes British, Australian,and German policies on coverage of "end-of-life" drugs.
Issue Brief
December 27, 2011 - This updated Commonwealth Fund chartbook uses data collected by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to compare the health care systems and performance across several industrialized countries.
Chartbook
November 9, 2011 - Adults with complex medical conditions, including those with serious or chronic illness, injury, or disability, benefit from receiving their care from a medical home, The Commonwealth Fund's latest international health policy survey finds.
In the Literature
November 9, 2011 - This publication presents overviews of the health care systems of 14 countries—Australia, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States.
Fund Report
November 3, 2011 - Enhancing the coordination and quality of care for chronically ill patients is a challenge across health care systems. This issue brief looks at a the results of a nationally implemented German disease-management program.
Issue Brief
September 8, 2011 - A new Commonwealth Fund-supported study comparing fees for physician services in the United States with those in five other nations finds that U.S. physicians are paid more per service than doctors in other countries—as much as double in some cases.
In the Literature
July 27, 2011 - This updated Commonwealth Fund chartbook uses data collected by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to compare the health care systems and performance across several industrialized countries.
Chartbook
July 27, 2011 - This analysis, of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) health data for 12 industrialized nations, finds health care spending in the U.S. towers over the other countries and U.S. performance was mixed.
Issue Brief
April 25, 2011 - In this Commonwealth Fund–supported study, researchers use case studies of three U.S. chronic care management models and four German models to examine their similarities and differences and glean lessons for both nations.
In Brief